Last Updated: 10/10/12

1. On 8/1/10, I squirted off the flosses and did the usual. The 1800 gallon was at 77 degrees F and the 153 gallon at 75 degrees F. I cut the fishing line holding in the floating island and took it out. All the impatiens died this year which has never happened before so I put it up for the year.

2. A storm came through at 4 am on 8/4/10. That morning, I saw that my mega yellow flag iris pot had fallen down. I got in with hip waders in the morning to right it and also one of the hardy canna which also fell. The iris is so huge that I don't know how I will repot it next month!

3. Arey in New Jersey took these great dragonfly photos and posted them on my forum on 8/3/10:
Male Eastern Pondhawk
Female Eastern Pondhawk
Needham's Skimmer
Halloween Pennant

4. On 8/8/10, I squirted off the flosses and the bioballs which were heavy with slop. The 1800 gallon was at 76 degrees F and the 153 gallon at 74 degrees F. The air temperature was 85 degrees F. I fertilized the waterlilies, lotus, and a few marginals. Except for the yellow waterlily which has flowers hidden under suspended leaves, the other four waterlilies are not flowering. Only one of those had any flowers this year. I don't know why; the leaves look fine; I repotted all this year and fertilize monthly. I found the barley straw pad holder in the 153 gallon pond by accident so I put in a new pad. After the pond work, I mulched the last section of the big pond. It only took 4 months and about 40 bags of mulch! I only have about 20 cages left and then all the other gardens, five big ones but none as large as around the big pond.

5. The morning of 8/12/10, we had a major thunderstorm at 6:30 am. Luckily, the power only went out for 5 seconds. When I went to feed the pond fish, I could see that the air stone was detached from the airline from the Luft pump. During and after a thunderstorm when it's hot is an important time to have aeration. Since I was late for work, instead of getting on my hip waders and getting in the pond to fix it, I pulled up the line and put on an older air stone until I can get in the pond on Sunday.

6. We went to the National Aquarium in Baltimore on 7/20/10. While there was a pond at the entrance (more of a small waterfall) and several inside, I didn't get any good photos of those. These are the best photos that I got or ones slightly related to some topics on my web site. While totally not related to ponds, I thought I would share just the best ones.

Hillstream loach
Mudskipper
Button polyps (coral)
Coral reef
Gold nugget plecostomus
Bottlenose dolphin
Jellyfish
Jellyfish

7. On 8/15/10, I squirted off the flosses. Both the 1800 gallon and 153 gallon ponds were at 74 degrees F. It was raining a bit (heavier earlier). I found the air stone that had come off and put it back on the line. My tropical waterlily flower was open! I took photos for later. The tropical pink pickerel rush was also about to bloom. I pulled several huge armfuls full of weed grass out of the waterfall. This also pulled the sweet potato vine out so I stuck it back in the moving water. I removed the pot it was in because some animals (deer probably) had already emptied the pot completely of rocks and vines anyway.

8. On 8/22/10, I squirted off the flosses and the Cyprio biothings in the kiddie pool. The 1800 gallon was at 78 degrees F and the 153 gallon at 77 degrees F.

9. On 8/29/10, I squirted off the flosses and did the usual. I changed the PondMaster filters. The 1800 gallon was at 74 degrees F and the 153 gallon at 75 degrees F.

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